


Three times the Doctor really weirded out her companions.

by wanderingstoryteller



Series: No one ever said this life would be simple [18]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, Scent Marking, Team TARDIS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-29 19:29:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17814119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingstoryteller/pseuds/wanderingstoryteller
Summary: Three times the Doctor really weirded out her companions. Graham discovers why the Doctor is such a hugger, the mystery of why the Doctor never changes her outfits is solved and we learn how Time Lords feel about bandannas.





	1. With cat like tread

**Author's Note:**

> The last two stories were pretty heavy so I figured something a bit light and funnier might be nice so I wrote a few drabbles.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn why the Doctor is such a hugger.

Graham had seen the Doctor do a lot of weird things since he met her. He’d seen her sniff things, eat dirt, and once even willingly put on a fez. This really took the cake though, especially because she was doing it to her companions' jackets.

He paused in the doorway to the consul room, watching what she seemed to think she was doing unobserved. She had taken down Yaz’s leather jacket from where it was hung on a hook by the wall and appeared to be industriously nuzzling it. Systemically she rubbed her cheeks and hands over the entire garment inside and out before she hung it back up.

Then she took down Ryan’s coat from a hook by the door and after giving it a perfunctory sniff began to run her hands and wrists on the outside of it. When she was satisfied she gave it a second sniff before hanging it back up.

Graham found himself oddly reminded of the scene in Red Dwarf where the Cat wanders around with a spray bottle spraying everything and declaring “this is mine.”

When the Doctor reached for Graham’s jacket. He decided it was time to draw the line. “Doctor, what on earth are you doing?”

She startled and turned, looking slightly guilty.

“Um.”

“You’re scent marking all of our coats, like a bloody cat aren't you?” This went a long way to explain her tendency to be such a hugger.

“Yes,” she admitted. “It’s a really hard instinct to ignore, especially now that I’m an alpha again.”

“Well, if Yaz lets you do that to her clothes that is her business, but leave Ryan and my stuff alone.”

“But how else do I let everyone know you're my fam?”

“I would image the fact that we run around with you might tip people off.”

“Most species pay way more attention to scent. You just come from one of the rare ones that doesn’t particularly.”

“It’s my coat, put it back.”

Frowning she did. “Fine, I guess I’ll have to go with the Team Tardis patches after all.”

“Patches?” asked Yaz wandering onto the bridge. “What are we doing with patches.”

“Did you know your girlfriend has been marking everything?”

Yaz blinked at him, “Yea, you just now noticed that? She’s got scent glands in her palms and cheeks. Why do you think she’s always touching everything?”

Graham looked even more flustered, “she was messing with my coat.”

“Doctor,” said Yaz, “I told you to stop doing that to other people’s stuff. It’s weird.”  

“No, it’s not. Graham is family.”

“Just because someone is family doesn’t mean you don’t have to respect their boundaries. We talked about this remember?”

The Doctor looked sulky. “Fine. I’ll just go make those patches then.”

When she was gone Yaz burst into giggles. “Oh Graham I wish you could see your face.”

That made him look even less impressed. “Well forgive me if I’m not thrilled to find out that the Doc apparently feels the need to mark her friends by rubbing her face on their clothes the way my old tomcat used to. At least she doesn’t shed or god forbid piss on things.” After a half beat he added. “She’s not peeing on random things is she? Please tell me she’s not.”

“She’s not. I doubt the TARDIS would stand for it anyway.”

That seemed to only mildly reassure Graham but he shrugged and went about his business. What Yaz hadn’t told him what that the Doctor’s tendency to scent mark _everything_ had actually become something of an issue between them. She’d once caught the Doctor going through a pile of her clean and folded laundry, rubbing her face on every single item and then not even folding any of it up again. They had had words about that, even if the Doctor insisted that it was normal for an alpha to want to make sure her mate smelled like her.  

She’d first assumed it was affection that led the Doctor to almost obsessively try and hug and nuzzle her the moment she stepped out of the shower. On good days that often even led to sex, it didn’t always though, and eventually she’d started to notice just how systematic the Doctor was about touching her at such times. The way she tended to press with the base of her palm instead of her fingers and how she would rub with the side of her cheek instead of kissing.

She was even worse about it whenever Yaz had been away from her and the TARDIS for over a day. The first time she’d offered to let Yaz borrow her coat she’d thought it was sweet, pretty quickly she realized that the Doctor only did it when she was leaving her presences for some reason. She just wanted her to smell like her.

As far as Yaz could tell, from other alphas she had encountered, the Doctor was not particularly possessive for one. Truth be told, she was actually less possessive than many human lovers Yaz had had. The Doctor was seldom jealous even when Yaz flirted with other women. The only time Yaz had ever even seen her flustered was when Marry Anne had flirted with her and the Doctor had gotten over any reservations in that matter very quickly. They had had a fair number of threesomes in their relationship.

She assumed the scent marking was a different kind of possessive, something closer to being protective than anything else. It was perhaps an alpha Time Lord equivalent of how the Doctor always shoved her companions behind herself whenever danger arose or declared people she liked to be under her protection. She’d seen the Doctor repeatedly nuzzle her children’s hair and rub her hands over their backs when she hugged them. Misca never seemed to particularly mind but Shiva would nearly always wiggle free and grumble something about not being a child. She did the same nearly every time they encountered one of her daughters as adults.

For all her grumbling though, the Doctor was clearly capable or respecting boundaries when she actually wanted to. Yaz had noticed that while the Doctor often hugged Avia when they went to pick up Misca, she always did so briefly and without any of her hair nuzzling or back rubbing behavior. She didn’t touch Maggie at all, beyond a very rare handshake. She was clearly not trying to declare possession of the couple, even if she cared about them both.

She didn’t try it with Missy either. Then again, Missy wasn’t the sort to tolerate hugs. Yaz had never seen the Doctor actually touch the other Time Lady outside of sex, even if she often looked like she wanted to.

Yaz generally chalked up the scent marking to just another odd quirk of the Doctor’s alien biology. It was even kind of endearing. She felt that way until the next time she went to get dressed in the morning and found her drawer of neatly folded shirts utterly rifled through. Then they had words again.  


	2. Raggedy Woman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan finally asked the question we have all been wondering.

They were all probably a bit drunk, although in the Doctor’s case it was hard to tell. She was overly enthusiastic and lacking any sort of filter on the best of days. After one particularly hard week, movie night had at some point devolved into drinks and sit about on the purple couch night. Yaz was more than comfortably sprawled halfway across the Doctor’s lap.

Ryan had given up his usual perch on the opposite end of the couch,  possible due to wanting a bit of space between himself and the lovebirds and taken up residence on a large green bean bag on the floor. Graham, as always, had claimed the comfy recliner.

The TARDIS, to everyone's surprise, including the Doctor’s for some reason, had a decent liquor cabinet. Ryan had a can of Strongbow, even though the Doctor swore she’d never bought such a thing. Graham was happily nursing a very fine scotch from a bottle the Doctor said someone name Mary had given her. Yaz had an ordinary vodka and coke. The doctor was holding some rather horrifying concoction of fruit juice and other things. Yaz wasn’t sure why the pink umbrella was necessary but the Doctor insisted it was.

Graham leaned forward to refill his glass from the dark bottle on the floor. “This is really good scotch by the way. Who was it exactly you said gave it to you?”

“Queen Mary.”

“Like Bloody Mary?” asked Yaz with a shiver.

“Nah, not the one who did all the beheading, the Scottish one who ended up beheaded. Queen Elizabeth and I had a falling out when she ordered her cousin executed like that. It was a shame, she and I always had a sort of good thing going before that.”  
Ryan nearly choked on his cider, “Wait? You and Queen Elizabeth?”

The Doctor winked at him. “Yea the historical one and the current one as well, although when she was much younger and a bit less prone to wearing so much pastel.”

Ryan’s face suggested that he really had not needed to know that. Yaz giggled and Graham looked almost thoughtfully at his glass of very historical alcohol.

“The Prince of Wales isn’t...?”

The Doctor shook her head, “Nah, his mom and I shouldn't have been compatible and we were careful. I think…” She shrugged, “Those ears he’s got though, I did have ears like that back in my ninth.” Now she looked trouble. “Nah, anway her husband kind of has ears like that as well.” She clapped her hands. “So who needs a top up.”

Ryan offered his can and Yaz her glass.

Before the Doctor could take Yaz’s, the young woman warned. “Just please don’t put extra sugar in it this time alright?”

“But it’s healthy.”

“Not for humans darling.”

“Salt then? You like salt on things right”

“Not in my drinks unless it’s a margaritas and only on the rim of the glass.”

The Doctor scrunched up her nose. They had discovered on a recent adventure that she hated margaritas nearly as much as she hated pears.

Yaz sighed. “I’d best just come along.”

They both stood and headed for the kitchen. The moment they were out of earshot, Ryan said, “I’m doing it. I’m asking her. I just have to know.”

“Don’t do it son, some questions you just don’t want to know the answer to.”

“But I’m curious, you can’t say you haven’t wondered. I mean you have to wonder.”

“Of course, I’ve wondered but It’s not our place to ask.”

“Why not?”

“Might be too personal.”

“We’ve been running around time and space with her for ages. We helped deliver her twins, I think we all moved past personal a while ago.”

Graham took a bigger drink of his scotch, “fine, ask her but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Ask me what?” chirped the Doctor as she and Yaz wandered back in. She offered Ryan his can of cheap cider before settling back on the couch with her bright pink drink in hand and girlfriend leaning back against her.

Ryan looked down at his unopened can, “Um…”

The Doctor frowned, “Ryan you're family, you really can ask me anything.”

“I just, I was wondering why you never change your clothes. I mean grandad bought you that outfit months ago and I’ve never seen you wear anything else. It was at a thrift shop so it is not like you could have gone back and gotten duplicates but you always wear the same shirt and pants. When do wash them? You don’t smell bad so you must. How have they never been damaged? Please tell me you are at least not wearing the same socks every day. I don’t, um want to be rude, it’s just been driving me crazy.” He said it all in one breath and then popped open his can and took a long drink as if terrified about the response he was about to get.

“Oh,” said the Doctor. “Wait, we face epic mysteries of time and space every day and the one that’s been bothering you is whether I ever change my socks?”

“Yea,” said Ryan. “I just don’t get how you do it. You came back from that weird palace place in different clothes and yet you were wearing your old ones the next day. Did you go back for them?”

“She didn’t, she’s just got a closet full of copies,” Yaz explained. “I’m not kidding she’s got like ten of everything except for the coat but she’s got three of those.”

“How?” asked Ryan.

“The TARDIS can duplicate textiles,” explained the Doctor as it were the simplest thing in the world.

“Like the replicator in Star Trek?”

“Sort of, she only really does it for clothes. She’s supposed to be able to do it for other things buts she won’t unless she’s in a really good mood. She absolutely won’t do food or anything like that.”

Ryan still wasn’t ready to let it go, “Why duplicate the same outfit though, why not just get other clothes. I mean you use a fake credit card or chip all the time.”

The Doctor scrunched up her nose again, “I hate shopping for women’s clothes. The sizes don’t make any sense and it’s really hard to find anything I like. Men’s clothes are so much easier, except I’m too small for most of them in this body. The whole hips and breasts things complicates it too.. So, I found one outfit I like and I’m sticking with it. It makes getting dressed a lot easier.”

“I can’t argue with that,” said Yaz. “One thing love about being in the police force is the uniform, ones less thing to think about.”

That got a nod from Graham. “It was the same when I drove a bus.”

Ryan considered that, “but did you replicate the socks too? I swear it always looks like the one on your left foot is unraveling.”

Yaz gave him a conspiratorial look. They were both a couple sheets to the wind “she replicated everything, even the bra. She’s been wearing the same thrift store white sports bra with a wine stain on the left boob since she got it. The last time I tried to take her to buy a new one she fled the shop after about two minutes.”  

“The place looked like it was full of torture devices.”

“It was the underwear section of Primark. You can get socks and knickers in packs of six there too.”

The Doctor huffed, “the underwires were scary.”  

“Why don’t you just buy her skivvies for her then?” asked Graham. The scotch was getting to him. “Grace used to buy my stuff. I told her she didn’t need to but she said it was no trouble. Now that I think about it I think she was just horrified by the state of my undershirts.”

Yaz made a face, “the Doctor’s not my wife, she can buy her own clothes.”  

“Just the mother of your twins,” laughed Ryan.

“Who haven’t even been born yet,” said Yaz. Then she tilted her head back to consider the woman she was lying against. “And even when we are moms together your clothes are still your problem. I’m absolutely not doing the whole housewife/TARDISwife thing.”

The Doctor chuckled softly and leaned down to kiss her forehead, “I did once, although I guess I was more of a househusband, it was kind of fun.”

Yaz arched an eyebrow which looked very funny to the Doctor from her angle. She kissed Yaz’s forehead again. “Don’t worry, I am over two thousand years old. I can absolutely replicate my own clothes.”

“Good,” said Yaz.

“On that odd note, I’m going to bed before I fall asleep in this chair again,” announced Graham.

Ryan hopped up to offer him a hand. While it was a marvelously comfortable easy chair, it was not an easy one to get out of, especially after a couple glasses of scotch.

Graham and Ryan stumbled off.

With them gone, the Doctor began to lightly nibble at Yaz’s ear, as she was sometimes wont to do. “You really think I need a new bra then?”

“It does have a red stain shaped like Australia.”

“I rather like that stain.”

“It can just be a little distracting, what with Australia not being the sexiest of shapes.”

“Even on my boob?”

“Even your boobs have limits. Maybe just ask the TARDIS to replicated the bra in black next time so that the stain doesn’t show?”

“I can do that.”

“Excellent.”  


	3. Rosie the Riveter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we learn how Time Lords feel about bandanas.

While the Doctor was often overly enthusiastic, she seldom over reacted. There was exceptions to this though. The look of mild shock and horror that crossed the Doctor’s face when Shiva wandered into the consul room that morning for their outing was almost comical.

“No, no, absolutely not. Take that thing out of your hair this instant.”

Shiva blinked at her mother. “My bandana?”

All three companions were equally baffled. The teen was wearing her usual get up of boots, jeans, band t-shirt and button covered denim jacket. The only difference was was that her messily braided hair was now partially contained with a WWII  style red and white spotted bandana.

“Yes, where did you even get that thing?”

“It’s just a red bandana. Rosie at camp gave it to me.”

The Doctor looked a bizarre combination of deeply embarrassed and troubled. “Another girl gave you that?”

“No the camp director. She wears one and I thought hers was really cool. I told her so and she gave me one of hers after I helped save the camp from golumns.”

“She...gave it to you?” She had one eye half closed in distress and her lips pressed tightly together.

“Doctor?” asked Yaz worriedly.

The Doctor shook her head once sharply and said mostly to herself,  “she’s human, I’m sure she meant nothing by it.” After another shudder she was able to look up again. “Shiva, dear one, you haven’t um worn that thing around your mother have you?”

Shiva leaned a hand on the central console, “Yea, I did. She said it made me look like a tart and to take it off that instantly. I told her I wouldn’t and then she threatened to not let me go back to camp next year, so I took it off. I didn’t think you’d care though.”

“She was right, you are far too young to wear that.”

“Doc,” said Graham as kindly as he could, “it’s just a bandana. What’s got you so upset? At least on earth, those are pretty innocent. Grace used to tie her hair up with one when she didn’t have time to wash it.”

The Doctor flushed crimson, “But it’s red and over her hair. It’s not...it’s not appropriate.”

“Since when do you care about appropriate?” teased Yaz, slipping an arm around her mates waist.

“She’s only fifteen!”

Oddly enough it was Ryan who finally got it. “Red head cloths are something dirty on Gallifrey aren’t they?”  

The Doctor looked at her feet, “yes, very much so.”

Yaz frowned, “I’ve seen pictures of formal Gallifreyan attire, they totally have red and gold headdress. It can’t just be hats that are taboo.”

“Yes, but to just partially cover the hair in red, that’s...” the Doctor actually covered her face. “It’s just...it’s not something a child should wear.”

Now Shiva was starting to look embarrassed, “like sexually dirty?”

“Yes.”  
The young Time Lady considered that for half an instant then she straightened her back, “I’ve never been to Gallifrey and I don’t care about their rules. I grew up on Vasca and a bit on earth and bandanas were fine in both places. I’m going to wear it, especially since I didn't wash my hair and its gross.”

“It’s not so much rules as…” The Doctor let out a tired breath. “Fine wear it then.” She’d been around enough teenagers to know that forbidding her daughter to wear the bandana would only make things worse.

Shiva scowled back at her. “I will then.”

It was one of their more awkward adventures, especially because every so often the Doctor would glance at Shiva and then wince. They were halfway across a field a singing poppies in the midst of a race to save a village of munchkins when Shiva finally cracked.

“Fine, I’ll take it off. Just stop looking at me like I’m some kind of slut.” she ripped the bandana from her hair and shoved it into a blue jean jacket pocket, looking almost on the verge of tears.

The Doctor froze in her step, “I would never think that.”

“You looked ashamed of me! Damn it. I just wanted to look like Rosie, she’s so confident and tough and everything.”

Now the Doctor looked like a different kind of ashamed. “I never...forgive me darling. You should be able to wear whatever you want, wherever you want, and I should be the last person to ever judge you. I try to rise above it but I still have a lot of baggage from where I grew up.”

Shiva crossed her arms. “Like what? Neither you or Mom will ever talk about it. I’ve begged her to take me to Gallifrey but she won’t. She says they’ll hurt me if I ever go.”

The Doctor reached for her daughter in the midst of the field of red. It was an odd conversation to have in front for Yaz, Graham and Ryan. The two men had the sense to draw back and even Yaz gave them a bit of distance “She’s not wrong. If you go there, you won’t be welcome. You were born, not loomed, you’ve been spared the untempered schism, they will never accept you.

“You mean it’s just one more place I don’t fit in, one more place I don’t belong!” Shiva glared at her mother. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to never belong anywhere? I thought I belonged on Vasca. I was just like any other kid even if I had flat teeth and had to eat solid stuff and my mom ruled the planet. Then I hit eleven and my body changed and all of a sudden I got breasts and I was weird and alien. I wore baggy clothes until mom and I got chucked out during that popular revolution.

“I go to that summer camp on earth and at least the other girls there my age have boobs, or even the ones that don’t, don’t think they are weird. I once tried to explain to my closest friends about the whole rut thing they really didn’t understand. I think I didn’t explain it right because my friend Jo thought I meant I’d been born with boy bits like she was. I had to explain I was an alien before she understood I was not a transgender human girl like her or that the thing I was talking about was only part of the time for me. At least after the whole Artemis being a goddess thing, me being an alien wasn’t so weird.”

“Shiva,” said the Doctor.

“Don’t you Shiva me! You don’t understand at all. I’m not Vascan and I’m not human but I don’t get to be a Time Lord either!”

The Doctor pulled her into her arms, “You are a Time Lord darling.”

“No I’m not. I can’t go to Gallifrey. I didn’t even know what is obscene there.”

“I’m not sure I do most of the time either. I left when I about your age. I have seldom dared go back.”

“At least you got to choose. I never wanted to be a freak or an outcast by you and Mom made me one by your decisions.”

“We are trying to protect you.”

Shiva’s lean shoulders slumped. “I know, and I also I know why I can’t go to Gallifrey, even if its the only place that people won’t think my body is weird.”

“Your body isn’t weird. It’s perfect and wonderful.”

“You’re my mom, you have to say that.”

“Your still absolutely perfect from the tip of your nose to the tip of your toes.” She tapped that nose for good affect, managing to aggravate her daughter.

“Again you’re my mom.”

Yaz decided to say something. “No idea about your toes but you have a perfectly good nose.”

“Seems very functional,” agreed Graham.

“And reasonably pointy,” added Ryan. He had no idea what to say about a nose. He suspected it was a bad time for jokes about smelling.

“You’re all dumb and sentimental,” grumbled Shiva. She was smiling in spite of herself. They finished their adventure. In the end they even managed to work out a treaty between the witch and the munchkins instead of throwing water on the green woman.

That night, after dinner had been eater and teenage appropriate movies watched and every one sent to their respective bedrooms Yaz curled up with the Doctor in their own warm bed.

“So, what the hell does a red bandana mean?”

The Doctor flushed like a tomato in the dim lamp light.

“Is it like running around in a short skirt?”

“Not exactly.”

“Like stepping out in one’s knickers?”

“Nothing wrong with knickers.”

Considering how often the Doctor tried to wander around in nothing more than hers that was likely a heartfelt sentiment.

“Like lingerie then?” They’d never had much luck with that, although Yaz had tried. The Doctor had always considered anything between her and a naked Yaz to be something of an impediment, no matter how silky or pretty. The only good thing the Doctor had to say about lacy undies was that they were easier to tear off a woman. Yaz had had better luck getting her attention by going without underwear than wearing anything fancy.

“I guess, sort of.”

Yaz was running out of comparisons. “Is it like a BDSM collar or something?”

If possible the Doctor grew redder, “Um, not really. It’s more like a french maid or a nurse halloween costume or something.”

Yaz blinked as some things connected. “A red hair cloth is a porny version of a formal gallifreyan headdress isn’t it.”

“Yea, pretty much if you could somehow also mix in the short skirt, lacy undies, and come hither eyelash fluttering that humans do sometimes.”

It was impossible for Yaz to not laugh a lot. “Figures your species would eroticise the oddest thing.” After a moment she added. “So, if I got a bandana…”

The Doctor’s eyes got huge with a mix or embarrassment and raw want. Then she looked away. “Your my mate, the future mother of my children. It wouldn’t…”

“Don’t you dare try and start that Madonna whore bullshit, neither of us even belong to that religion.”

The Doctor pulled her closer and kissed her once very thoroughly, “then yes, if that is something you would be willing to wear for me that would really, really, really turn me on.”

“So does it need white dots or…”

“Plain red is best but if you feel better with something a bit more innocent...”

“I love red. So like a silk scarf or a plain cotton one?”

“Cotton, the cheaper the better.” The Doctor’s hands had started wandering, her breath growing very short. “There’s just something about rough cloth on a beautiful woman.”

“Oh I can find one of those,” Yaz promised. This was some of the oddest dirty talk/ sexual negotiation that Yaz had ever taken part in. “Rolled like a headband or over half the hair.”

“Like a headband but still wide enough to cover some hair,” her voice was so throaty.

Yaz nibbled at her ear, “So do you fuck me with it still in my hair or do you untie it?”

“We start with you wearing it and then, and the right when I’ve got you almost to your orgasm, that’s when I tug it loose.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Things went a rather predictable direction after that.

A few days later she bought a pack of six of them at Primark, so cheap that they were stiff with the dye and couldn’t be put in the wash with anything light colored for the first few times. The Doctor really, really loved them.

Sometimes after that, just to torture her mate when they were out and about together, but not with the others, she’d wrap up half her hair in one. It always made her so absolutely wonderfully attentive. The doctor was so perfectly eager she practically and sometimes did rip Yaz’s clothes off by the time they made it back to the privacy of their own bedroom. There were a few notable instances involving a garden wall, a bar bathroom and once a non time traveling phone box.


End file.
